Recipes for everyday vegetarian Indian dishes with easy style and quick cooking methods.

VRAT LUNCH FOR NAVARATHRI

This Vrat lunch has dishes from South India as well, normally not seen in a North Indian vrat plate.
It is very difficult for us South Indians to give up totally on our dishes at least some of them even for a North Indian Vrat plate.

So after looking at the list of permitted ingredients and spices I realized we have several South Indian dishes which can easily be consumed after making very tiny changes.which was a relief to me!

4. Banana stem gravy

( recipe modified to suit Vrat requirements )

1 cup thin buttermilk to soak the stem roundels before cutting them fine to avoid discoloration.

2 small green chillies

1 red dry chilly ( boriya) for tempering.

2 tsp oil for seasoning. ( optional)

sprigs of curry leaves

Rock salt to taste.

Method:

Wash the stem and remove the outer covering which is thick and between the covers you will see the single white tender stem which has no outer cover but a shiny skin.

Remove the layers of thick cover till you see the white stem and , peel the shiny skin on the tender stem, slice into thin roundels. You need to keep taking off the fibers which comes in thin strands as you slice .

Drop the thin slices into a bowl of buttermilk to retain the white colour.

After you have finished slicing the stem into roundels, chop them into small pieces and keep them also in buttermilk.

Take a broad pan and cook the chopped pieces in little buttermilk itself and add some salt.

Meanwhile grate the 1/2 coconut or the use the dry coconut powder / or kopra and grind into paste with little water along with 2 green chillis and 1 tsp of cumin seeds.

The stem pieces would have cooked quickly if they are very tender and and then add the ground paste and let it simmer on low flame , add the whisked yogurt and keep for a minute on the gas and then remove. Do not let it cook further once yogurt is added. Just a gentle boil will do.

The gravy would have thickened after adding the coconut paste and the yogurt.

Take a small pan for the tempering, with 1 or 2 tsp of oil, add cumin seeds and sprigs of curry leaves, 1 red round chili (boriya mirchi )) and pour the seasoning on the gravy.

Serve hot with samvat chawal for vrat during Navarathri .

5. Coconut ladoo ( vrat )

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup home made condensed milk . (Recipe for quick home

made condensed milk given below.)

1 cup milk powder

1/2 cup icing sugar or granulated sugar

1/2 cup hot milk or very hot water.

1 tbsp melted butter.

Method:

Blend all the ingredients well till creamy and to the consistency you desire.

To thin it, use little more hot water or milk.

Store in a bottle and refrigerate.

Stays good upto 5 days .

Ingredients to make coconut ladoos

1 cup home made condensed milk

1cup milk powder ( optional) if not used during vrat , then skip milk powder

Method :

Heat the 1 tbsp ghee in a deep non stick kadai over a medium-low flame till it melts.Add the freshly grated / coconut or the unsweetened desiccated coconut powder , keeping some desiccated coconut powder aside for rolling the ladoos in it., in ghee and saute them on low flame . Around 3 minutes only.

Add the sweetened condensed milk and milk powder into the nonstick kadhai and mix all the ingredients well..lower the gas flame flame and keep stirring making sure the contents do not stick to the pan.

Add the green cardamom seeds powder and few strands of saffron, mix well. Add some roasted or fried cashewnuts and raisins sauteed in ghee into the mixture.

Cook the above mixture for 2 to 3 minutes or so till the whole mixture comes together.

Switch off the gas and let the mixture cool down before you roll them into ladoos.

Grease your palms if necessary before rolling small balls of ladoo, actually it wont be needed as we have added ghee in the beginning itself.

Finally roll the small balls of ladoo in some reserved desiccated coconut powder or reserved grated fresh coconut.

These yummy coconut balls will remain good for a week in the refrigerator and also by keeping in the refrigerator, they will firm up even more and remain non sticky.

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About The Author

I am Radha Natarajan , author of Your Everyday Cook . Currently based in Chennai ( Tamilnadu ). Armed with professional degrees in Marketing and Advertising Iam now a full time mom , home maker and an avid blogger . Photography , travel tales and gardening takes my time besides food blogging.